New Compound May Block Spread of Melanoma, Treat Scleroderma

A chemical compound, and potential new drug, may reduce the spread of melanoma cells by up to 90 percent, report researchers from Michigan State University in East Lansing.

The man-made, small-molecule drug compound goes after a gene’s ability to produce RNA molecules and certain proteins in melanoma tumors. This transcription process causes the disease to spread, but the compound can shut it down. Up until now, few other compounds of this kind have been able to accomplish this.

“It’s been a challenge developing small-molecule drugs that can block this gene activity that works as a signaling mechanism known to be important in melanoma progression,” says Richard Neubig, MD, PhD, a pharmacology professor and co-author of the study, in a news release. “Our chemical compound is actually the same one that we’ve been working on to potentially treat the disease scleroderma, which now we’ve found works effectively on this type of cancer.”

The same mechanisms that produce fibrosis in scleroderma also contribute to the spread of cancer.

The findings are published in the January issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

The research team found that the compounds were able to stop proteins, known as Myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTFs), from initiating the gene transcription process in melanoma cells. These triggering proteins are initially turned on by another protein called RhoC, or Ras homology C, which is found in a signaling pathway that can cause the disease to aggressively spread in the body.

The compound reduced the migration of melanoma cells by 85 to 90 percent. The team also discovered that the potential drug greatly reduced tumors specifically in the lungs of mice that had been injected with human melanoma cells.

Being able to block along this entire path allowed the researchers to find the MRTF signaling protein as a new target.

“The majority of people die from melanoma because of the disease spreading,” says Dr. Neubig. “Our compounds can block cancer migration and potentially increase patient survival.”

Figuring out which patients have this pathway turned on is an important next step in the development of the compound because it would help them determine which patients would benefit the most, the researchers note.